Speedrun Fast: Portal Plus TAS with GLaDOS

Hello, and welcome to the enrichment center. Today’s activity schedule will feature something a little different than our regular activities. This time, we will see a speedrun of fan-favorite Portal, a former world record. The current record could not be found, nor is it archived on speedrun.com. Also note that this is not a glitchless speedrun. Following the first presentation, our attention will be directed to the second video, which demonstrates a tool-assisted speedrun, or TAS, in order to show how drastically Portal gameplay is altered as a result.

We are now ready to begin the test proper.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCOpau7oTHo[/embedyt]

You don’t have long to wait for the first exploit – it occurs two-and-a-half minutes into the run. The runner continues to utilize out-of-bounds glitches throughout, to the point where both the viewer and GLaDOS herself are hard-pressed to keep up with what is going on. Imagine how much memorization and concentration is required to play it. If GLaDOS thinks her heart is broken, she ought to watch this Portal run.

We will now take a short break for some cake before the next video.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9gxFkOz2_4[/embedyt]

TAS runs allow the player to perform tasks and actions that, which technically possible, are either very difficult or beyond human ability under normal circumstances. Right at the start the runner escapes the first room in Portal, whereas the first runner did not. Once again, the video is hard to follow due to the strategies used. As for the time, this TAS cuts more than three minutes off the regular time, from eight-and-a-half to five-and-a-quarter. For this reason, TAS runs are recorded as a separate category than non-TAS runs.

Check out The Nerd Stash for your daily recommended dose of gaming news, and leave a comment telling us which run to do next. But even if you don’t, we will be still alive.

Matt Eschbach is a PC, Mac and Android indie game developer and fiction writer. His works have won multiple monetary awards from various contests. Graduating college in 2012 with a major in Game Design, Matt spends his time making stuff up and then building it. His favorite hobby… is sleeping.